Reid: So I hear there's this group of activists that have bought a boat and are heading out to do a documentary on the huge trash heap out in the middle of the Pacific.
Jeff: It's apparently from all the container ships losing cargo.
Reid: I think there's a lot from the crap dumped by cities in there too.
Doug: Can you believe that cities like Victoria still dump their raw sewage into the ocean? Apparently they get away with it because the currents in the Juan de Fuca Strait send it straight out to sea.
Jeff: How can this all be acceptable to everyone?
Reid: Out of sight, out of mind, baby.
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Here's the truth on the North Pacific Gyre:
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff
Sent: April 12, 2007 1:29 PM
To: Doug; Reid
Subject: WONDERFUL!!
The centre of the North Pacific Gyre is relatively stationary (the area it occupies is often referred to as the horse latitudes) and the circular rotation around it draws waste material in. This has led to the accumulation of flotsam and other debris in huge floating 'clouds' of waste, leading to the informal name The Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Eastern Garbage Patch. While historically this debris has biodegraded, the gyre is now accumulating vast quantities of plastic. Rather than biodegrading, plastic photodegrades, disintegrating in the ocean into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces, still polymers, eventually become individual molecules, which is still not easily digested. The photodegraded plastic can attract pollutants such as PCBs. The floating particles also resemble zooplankton, which can lead to them being consumed by jellyfish and thus entering the ocean food chain. In samples taken from the gyre in 2001, the mass of plastic exceeded that of zooplankton (the dominant animalian life in the area) by six times.
Occasionally, shifts in the ocean currents release flotsam lost from cargo ships into the currents around the North Pacific Gyre, leading to predictable patterns of garbage washing up on the shores around the outskirts of the gyre. The most famous was the loss of approximately 80,000 Nike sneakers and boots from the ship Hansa Carrier in 1990: the currents of the gyre distributed the shoes around the shores of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii over the following three years. Similar cargo spills have involved tens of thousands of bathtub toys in 1992 and hockey equipment in 1994. These events have become a major source of data on global-scale ocean currents. Various institutions have asked the public to report the landfall locations of the objects (trainers, rubber ducks, etc.) that wash up as a method of tracking surface waters' response to the deeper ocean currents.
For several years ocean researcher Charles Moore has been investigating a concentration of floating plastic debris in the North Pacific Gyre. His study indicates that ocean currents have added to the mass until it is now about the size of Texas. Many of these long-lasting pieces wind up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals.
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 1:42 PM
To: Jeff; Reid
Subject: RE: WONDERFUL!!
We'll next time we go to PHO HOE I'm ordering the Atlantic Seafood Chowder Special w/ extra polymerized zooplankton!
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From: Jeff
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 1:46 PM
To: Doug; Reid
Subject: RE: WONDERFUL!!
Me too! Can't get enough of that plastic!! YUMMY!!! Who needs fruits and veggies when you can get your roughage by consuming copious amounts of photodegraded plastics? I'm surprised someone hasn't done some research and introduced this as a new diet? The North Pacifie Gyre diet. Just get a couple of cute buff boys and gals on the cover and have a really bright primary color scheme with something shiney. We would be rich in now time. People like Betty Butterfield would order 12 or so online.
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From: Reid
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:06 PM
To: Jeff; Doug
Subject: RE: WONDERFUL!!
You could give the coverboys a glossy sheen finish on their skin, sort of like they've eaten too much plastic -- oooh! look! shiny boys! I'm glad no one is concerned about the Gyre -- all those Nike shoes and rubber duckies are a great addition to the natural ecosystem, to be sure!
-----Original Message-----
From: Reid
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:08 PM
To: Jeff; Doug
Subject: RE: WONDERFUL!!
I have to add this discussion to my blog. It's just WAY too funny.
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From: Jeff
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 2:13 PM
To: Reid
Subject: RE: WONDERFUL!!
Go right ahead.
I don't know why we just don't pave this garbage, add some trees and sand and make an airport and then it can become a vacation destination. Pacific Gyre...where tranquility is the only abundant thing....
Add something shiny, hot boys and girls and there ya go!!
Just take out the e-mail addresses thou before you post. Don't need any weirdos e-mailing us.
2 comments:
It just gets better and better everyday here on planet Earth. Where the brightest of our species is leading the way to destruction YEAH!!
Like I said at lunch, I just don't think we are a species destined to survive, we are just way too stupid and shotsighted and fueld by greed. Ingredients for extinction as far as I'm concerned.
Now, where can I get in on this North Pacific Gyre destination vacation? I hope it's the new Airbus double decker that flies there. Non-stop of course. 390 tonnes soaring thru the atmosphere at 750 miles an hour. As long as they have onflight drinks and a movie, I'm OK.
I totally love you guys
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